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Curry County v. Robert Dark

Americans With Disabilities Act: Reasonable Accommodation

In a case alleging discriminatory discharge under the Americans with Disabilities Act, on a motion for summary judgment, Public Citizen is co-counsel for the respondent employee who is waiting to be able to proceed to make his case on the merits in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Questions presented:

  1. Where a municipal body, acting in a judicial capacity, reviews a termination decision made by a subordinate employee, and affirms it on grounds that are independent and nondiscriminatory, and where there is no evidence adduced that the county had any discriminatory motive — is there a genuine issue of discriminatory discharge?
  2. When events demonstrate as a matter of law that no accommodation would have enabled him to perform the essential functions of his job — is there a genuine issue of whether he could have been reasonably accommodated?
  3. When he offers no evidence as to when any vacant jobs became available, what the jobs were, and whether he could perform the essential functions of any of the jobs — is there a genuine issue of whether he could have been reasonably accommodated through reassignment?

Brian Wolfman of Public Citizen was co-counsel for the respondent at the cert stage, and the Supreme Court denied cert.